Marching backwards in very long strides
Marching backwards in very long stridesBy Editor
Monday September 08, 2008 [04:00]
There are no shortcuts in meaningful life. A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or power to strive after greater things, is as little worth of a nation as of an individual. We do not admire the man of timid peace.
We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbour; who is prompt to help a friend; but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail; but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. Freedom from effort in the present, merely means that there has been stored up effort in the past. A man can be freed from the necessity of work only by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to good purpose.
If the freedom thus purchased is used aright, and the man still does actual work, though of a different kind, whether as a farmer, a journalist, or in the field of politics, he shows he deserves his good fortune. But if he treats this period of freedom from the need of actual labour as a period not of preparation but of mere enjoyment, he shows that he is simply a cumberer on the earth's surface; and he surely unfits himself to hold his own with his fellows if the need to do so should again arise. A mere life of ease is not in the end a satisfactory life, and above all, it is a life of which ultimately fits those who follow it for serious work in the world.
As it is with an individual, so it is with the nation. It is a base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though chequered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
There are men who fear the strenuous life, who fear the only national life which is really worth leading. They believe in that cloistered life which saps the hardy virtues in a nation, as it saps them in the individual; or else they are wedded to that base spirit of gain and greed which recognises in commercialism the be-all and the end-all of national life, instead of realising that, though an indispensable element, it is after all but one of the many elements that go to make up true national greatness.
No country can long endure if its foundations are not laid deep in the material prosperity which comes from thrift, from business energy and enterprise, from hard, and sparing effort in the fields of industrial activities; but neither was any nation ever yet truly great if it relied upon material prosperity alone.
Our country, as it stands today, calls not for the life of ease, but for the life of strenuous endeavour.
The second decade of this century looms before us big with the fate of many nations. If we stand idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease, and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by and win for themselves the domination of the world.
Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word; resolute to be both honest and brave, to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods.
Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified: For it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavour, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness. It is in this light that we should look at what is happening in our country today. Values are being changed, standards are being altered and principles are being abandoned without being defended, without a fight. And all is said to be in the interest of unity, stability and continuity.
But look at the methods that are being used to bring about this unity, stability and continuity.
Look at what they did just to win an adoption! And look at how they are starting their campaign for the presidency of this country! Now they want to change the Constitution so that they continue in power without elections. The methods they are using to win or retain power can easily be turned into methods of barbarism. If these are not the methods of barbarism, what methods does barbarism employ? They have embarked on a process which, we venture to say, nothing can furnish justification.
Look at the way they are treating those who oppose them! They are behaving as if they are in a fight with a foreign foe whom they have to thrash, overcome, vanquish and punish, and then abandon him and turn their back on him. They are forgetting that these men are their neighbours, their fellow citizens. Whatever their perceived faults, whatever their offences against them in the present or in the future, they will have to live in this country together.
It seems that the pursuit of power and wealth corrupts the manhood of men.
It is clear that in us the forces of selfishness and of lust for power have met their match.
Duty - Honour - Country. These three hallowed of words reverently dictate what we ought to be, what we can be, what we will be. They should be our rallying points; to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. These words build your basic character; they mould you for your future roles as custodians of the nation's defence; they make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.
They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success, not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion on those who fail; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness.
They give you the temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigour of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage of timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart a sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be a good citizen.
The code which these words perpetrate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong.
Let us always learn to stand up against that which is wrong, that which violates standards, principles. These characters want to take over power at any costs. And in that quest they are ready to trample over everything that stands in their way - be it individuals, institutions or laws. They are even ready to change the Constitution to allow themselves to gain power without elections. This shouldn't be allowed under whatever forms of political manipulation, intimidation because it will set a very dangerous precedent for this country which will be difficult to correct.
We shouldn't forget that Levy Mwanawasa refused to set up a constituent assembly because it was not provided for in our laws. But they want to do things that are unconstitutional for political expedience. These are the men who want to rule over us. Let's be very careful, let's be very vigilant or we will find ourselves marching backwards in very long strides.
posted by MrK @ 4:45 AM
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